Barrie - I'm seeing a curious "square block" pattern in the upper part of the background in the first image, about in the same horizontal plane as the crown of the gentleman's hat' I can also see it, though it is less pronounced, in the second image.

Is it in the original files or only in the uploaded jpegs?

Or is it invisible to everyone else and therefore an artifact introduced somehow at my end?

Barrie - I'm seeing a curious "square block" pattern in the upper part of the background in the first image, about in the same horizontal plane as the crown of the gentleman's hat' I can also see it, though it is less pronounced, in the second image.

Is it in the original files or only in the uploaded jpegs?

Or is it invisible to everyone else and therefore an artifact introduced somehow at my end?

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Nah it's just you Paul!...

....actually no squares on my end but I do see some very subtle banding (horizontal) now that you mention it. More pronounced (but still not in your face) in the first but (barely) discernible in the second.

This "farm" series takes me back to my childhood. I love old farm machinery, of all kinds. The PP just adds to the era feel.

I did not notice any "banding" issues, and I don't care. Photography has always had "flaws", but we still do it, because the memories are fleeting, and must be gotten now, because they will never be the same again.

Fantastic set of shots, Barrie. I see the artifacts as well, but it's just a matter of backing up a bit on the structure (silver efex) or clarity slider.

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Thanks Antonio, I certainly concede that there are artifacts to be seen in the end results. I'll revisit some of the raw files this evening and see if it's due to an overuse of the detail slider in photo ninja (used to process the original raw file to obtain a tiff) or as you suggest the structure setting in SEP2. I've probably overdone things somewhere in an effort to obtain some detail in the sky which, whilst cloudy was obviously not as dramatic as portrayed in some of the shots.

I might also print out one or two of the tiffs to see if the artifacts are emphasised by the downsizing for the web.

I like the positively metallic look of some of these. Hope you print some large on glossy paper as they are going to look stunning.

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Thank you John. I guess all photographic images, and indeed art, is a matter of personal interpretation. How close to reality do we really come. Surely some of JWM Turner's great works are artistic interpretations of the scene he saw before him, and whilst they could be argued to distort reality, that does not detract from their impact on us as observers of them.

As a former engineer I don't really do philosophic interpretation, I always dealt in the reality of a situation, so I won't advance any further ideas

Thank you John. I guess all photographic images, and indeed art, is a matter of personal interpretation. How close to reality do we really come. Surely some of JWM Turner's great works are artistic interpretations of the scene he saw before him, and whilst they could be argued to distort reality, that does not detract from their impact on us as observers of them.

As a former engineer I don't really do philosophic interpretation, I always dealt in the reality of a situation, so I won't advance any further ideas

We are all free as artists to advance an image of how we feel about the image, or an attitude or mood we want to convey with it -- and these are in addition to or alternative to the "presentation of reality". Almost all of our photographs start obviously as an observation of reality, but then we as artists are free to make of that what we will.

I myself am more in the photo-realistic camp, but certain distortions of color and tone certainly are in my "palette" even with that general focus.

I'm that uncomfortable hybrid: the artist/engineer. I have both natures and they are always arguing. It gets noisy in here sometimes, lol...